On January 24, 2016, AMWA New England hosted a roundtable brunch. The topic of my roundtable was Blogging–for clients as well as my freelance business. We discussed the differences in writing for various audiences. For example, when I started writing blog posts for my own business I wrote on many different topics of interest to medical writers. However, as I continue to write blog posts I have focused the blog posts on current issues in my areas of expertise. This builds my credibility and establishes me as an expert in writing non-regulatory documents.
When I write for clients I first consider the audience. Am I writing for physicians or patients? When I write for physicians I include the key points as bullet points under easy to find sub-headings. When I write for patients I use “real world” analogies to present the complex scientific information in a way that is familiar and more easily understood. I was pleased to see that this is one of the suggestions of Jay Ingram, the Alvarez Award Winner at the last AMWA National Conference in his talk entitled “Take Them on a Journey,” which is summarized in the Winter 2015 issue of the AMWA Journal.
Now that you know who you are writing for, here are some additional tips to use when writing blog posts. Blog posts should be between 300 and 800 words in length. Keep your blog post focused on the main points you want your audience to remember. Include a creative title and a picture on the topic to enhance your blog post.
Examples of both physician and patient blog posts as well as my freelance blog posts are found on my website. You will see that I include all of my original source material and references within the blogpost so the readers can view the original material, if desired.
What would you like to see me write about in my blog? Please suggest topics for future blog posts.